Dreams & Nightmares

Humans are unable to see thoughts, memories, dreams & perceptions.
I thought having a look into dreams/nightmares would be quite neat.

It's not much, but it's another step forward!
Just as I dove into psychology, a website called medicalnewstoday.com mentioned how we are unable to physically see mental processes such as thoughts, memories, dreams and perceptions. I instantly thought how neat it would be to look more into dreams and nightmares.

To me, dreaming is still a fuzzy thing. I barely have clear dreams that I can remember, but only fragments. When it comes to nightmares I remember them quite well. Recurring dreams also came into play. I had this one nightmare that would recur a few times, but small things about that nightmare would change. So it would still be scary each time as my unconscious mind wouldn't know what to expect with each change as it recurred.

Recurring dreams may be your mind’s way of telling you something. Do you have the same nightmare over and over again? Loewenberg suggests looking for underlying messages in recurring dreams so that you can rid yourself of them.

Recurring nightmares
-Repetition of an item
-Slight changes with each recurrence
-Links to experiences e.g. attack, accident, traumatic event
-Associates with fear, anxiety & distress.
-Nightmares occur more with children than adults

Notes
-Lucid Dreaming → Having control of a dream.
-Apon awakening our thoughts see our dreams as something bizarre
-First dream of the night = 5mins long. Last dream of the night = 45mins - 1hr

IDEA
A boy is at sea in a boat during the day searching for something. It changes to night time and there is a lighthouse. The lighthouse's light loops around which signifys the first nightmare. Each loop of the light represents the recurred nightmare. Something about the scene, be the lighthouse or environment would change.
The significance of this is that the little boy is scared of the dark- being the dark itself or what lurks in the dark like monsters 'monsters under the bed or in the closet'
I would take into consideration the length of dreams - the first dream is 5mins long and the last is nearly an hour long. Taking this into the animation and translating it into 1minute long, the dream part of the boy at sea in daylight would last 10secs, while the rest is a nightmare, being 50seconds. Yay for ratios.

This is just an idea, but I feel like it needs more properties of nightmares/ dreams within it. I've only just touched on nightmares, so I need to look deeper to better incorporate it into animation.

My tutor suggested looking at Carl Jung & Sir Sigmund Freud as well as surrealism to get a better understanding and hopefully more ideas!

references
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/nightmares-in-adults#1
http://www.clinicaladvisor.com/web-exclusives/determining-the-cause-of-recurring-nightmares/article/224569/
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/9-things-about-dreams?page=3

Taylor's Memory

On Monday we got given a small brief by one of our peers to do a one second animation of said peer's favourite childhood memory. Taylor and I paired up and her memory is of her sister, cousin and herself dressing up as Teen Titan characters. The would go to their Nana's house and film themselves and watch them. I animated them watching their own footage whilst the smell of their Nana's cooking wafted into the room.

A Look into Psychology

My mind is been very blank regarding what discipline I want to go with. I have interests in different things, but none that I have lots of knowledge in. So I've decided to go with something more abstract and something I don't really understand at all..which doesn't seem like the obvious choice.
I've decided to look into Psychology - I'm not entirely sure if this is what I want to go with, but it's getting more and more interesting so I'll keep looking into it and hopefully something will jump up and smack me in the face.
Psychology is very broad, so I'm having a look at each branch to better understand what exactly psychology is. (I honestly didn't know what psychology was before I looked into it now)...

Psychology is the science of the mind and behavior. The word "psychology" comes from the Greek word psyche meaning "breath, spirit, soul", and the Greek word logia meaning the study of something.

Clinical Psychology →
Concentrates on the intellectual, emotional, biological, psychological, social, & behavioral aspects of human performance. The scientific study & application of psychology in order to understand, prevent & alleviate psychologically- caused distress or dysfunction (disability) & promote the patients well-being & personal development.

Cognitive Psychology →
Investigates internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, learning & language (how people think, perceive, communicate, remember & learn). How people acquire, process & store information.

Developmental Psychology →
The scientific study of systematic psychological changes that a person experiences over the course of his/her life span. Human development. Includes any psychological factor including motor skills, problem solving, moral understanding, acquiring language, emotions, personality, self concept & identity formation.

Evolutionary Psychology →
How human behavior has been affected by psychological adjustments during evolution. An evolutionary psychologist believes, for example, that language or memory perception are functional products of natural selection.

Forensic Psychology →
Applying psychology to criminal investigation and the law. Includes understanding criminal law in order to interact with judges, lawyers etc within the legal system. Forensic psychology involves the ability to testify in court, to present psychological findings in legal language to the courtroom, and to provide data to legal professionals in a clear way.

Health Psychology →
Observes how behavior, biology & social context influence illness & health. A health psychologists aim is to improve the patient's overall health by analyzing disease in the context of biopsychological factors (how the brain & neurotransmitters influence our behaviors, thoughts & feelings). 

I'll look into more branches in another blog post

Tome, Weapon & Steampunk Items Feedback

On Tuesday, I also got given feedback for the tome I created as well as the weapon and steampunk items.
Lena suggested showing the feather dagger to look more sharp and pointed as it is quite round at the tip. Also showing a texture on the feather would be helpful as it isn't obvious that is is tough or hard..looks more like something that will tickle someone to death rather than poison them.

For the steampunk item, Mikayla noticed the 2 magnifying parts of the goggles and said a neat idea regarding them. As the goggles see into the near future, the magnifiers can see further into the future, but the range of sight is smaller. I like this idea is it puts a use to this part of the goggles and isn't there for decoration.

Horror Environment Concepts + Feedback

I've been meaning to post this for the last few days!!
On Tuesday we were given the task to draw 4 horror game environment concepts. I drew my ideas up fast, so they aren't thought out very well. They had to include a sunflower and a baby flower rattle.

This concept is quite boring and doesn't have much going for it. My tutor Lena, suggested playing around with the lighting. E.g. light coming in from the window, which will cause the sunflower to simply be a black silhouette. Taylor said the sunflower can cast a creepy shadow. My own thoughts on it include, shifting the window over, so it's not in the center, more toys on the ground and perhaps a different angle of the view.

When I think of a baby rattle or toy, I begin to think of other related baby things, in this case a cot. Lena suggested making it more clear on which direction the attack on the cot is coming from. I said that I wasn't sure if someone attacked the cot or if it was the baby that wreaked the cot. So I understand that showing a clear indication of the direction of the attack would help the player better understand the image and what happened. Jerwin said that the sunflower on the wall makes it look creepy. Mikayla suggested having the image crooked on the wall or even on the ground, showing that it has fallen off. I really like this idea, but I reckon it can definitely go both ways. - A messy room with something untouched can add emphasis to each thing depending on the way you look at it. A fully messy room can shock the player.

I took the previous concept and changed it up more. I originally wanted the hands to be coming out of a big shadow, but didn't get around to drawing it in. I added shadow to add emphasis which looks a lot more interesting than the previous concept.

This concept isn't much of an environment concept, but I went with it. Tea suggested that the flower that the baby is holding would be dead, while the sunflower next to it would stay alive. This is a neat idea as it suggests that the baby is possessed or some sort of demon or not from this world.

Jellyfish Animation

Today for class we had to come up with an animation over a funky background being some wateeeeer. I imagined some jellyfish minding their own business near the surface when a wave kinda pushes them down causing them to tumble about in the water. Poor jellies ♥

Tower~

Tower made in unity! I thought I understood it, but when I came back to doing it again today...I stuffed up. BUT I sort of understand the parenting now!!

Book Club

On Monday, our task was to change an already created comic into a different story type thing. The thing I changed about a character are the faces.  
I chose Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai and this is what I came up with. 

Transdisciplinary Animation Project

This term we have to write a Creative Brief for a Transdisciplinary Animation Project. We need to mash animation with another disciplinary and I honestly don't know where to start.

I really like what Dane come up with music. With the animation crossing over one another then back to the same speed and then crossing over again. I'd like to use music as my second disciplinary, but I would not know what to look for and I don't know much about music. Saying this, we do need to research our second disciplinary. Although I'm not sure how far we have to look into something in order to say 'Ah yes, I will go with this disciplinary!' If it doesn't work out, then I would lose a lot of time.

I need to think of options at least and quick...it's already week 3 now...

Shot 9.1

Today, I worked on shot 9.1 where the actor drops his head down and Elizabeth looks sympathetic towards him.
There was a list of things to change that Taylor wrote up being:

-Background images of both the real world and mirror world to be updated.
-Update the animation of Elizabeth (As clean up is finished for this shot).
-Framing
-Add newspaper (plus overlays etc)
-Adjust bottom right corner of glow to mirror

I have completed all of these things, but will continue to play around with the newspaper overlays and colour. Taylor has been helping me as I'm pre bad on after effects. The glow on the actor is rather subtle, but even too clearly see it - don't want it to be too bright. The mirror might be a bit too white in terms of lighting. We are originally going for an orange kind of light emitting from the mirror. I'm not too sure on how to do this, but I'll give it my best.
The window light still needs to be played around with, it's way too dark. This would be done in Maya.

On to Compositing

I'm done with animating and will be moving on to helping Patrick and Taylor with the compositing. At the moment Taylor is sorting out the shots as EVERYTHING was compiled into one file which was around 80gbs :O She has written notes for each shot on what needs to be done to them. Once she's sorted out and compressed shot footage, she will hand me some shots to tidy up :) I'm not that great on after effects, but I will try my best!!!!

Quick Update

I haven't been able to make many blog posts since the last post. The internet keeps disconnecting at home and work was getting in the way a bit. On Tuesday, I started cleaning up a shot (inbetweening) Taylor had cleaned up the keys as well as filled out the rough inbetweens. It was easy to clean up as her roughs were pretty clean. I didn't realize how slow I am at clean up though -.- It's been a while since I last did a 2D animation. I have one more frame to clean up as well as a few faces to fill in as I'm very particular with faces for clean up. .I'll definitely have this done by the end of Monday then I'll hand it over to Joseph, Gabby or Raven to colour. Taylor and I are going to finish animating and move on to helping Patrick compositing for the final!! For people that are carrying on with clean up, I'll give them a hand if they need help and also check on them to see how they're going :)

Today at the meeting, I suggested that we make the newspaper a tiny bit transparent, or something along those lines as there's absolutely no light coming through it. Paper is generally see through (depends on the paper), and with the light coming through the mirror world, we'd need to see some coming through the newspaper. It'd also make it look a bit glowy as it falls from the vanity unit (with the light coming through the newspaper from the light within the vanity unit.

June 3rd Feedback

Group Feedback
- Show shaking when the earthquake occurs
-Silhouette of Elizabeth needs to be more clear
- Lights flickering/ things falling off the piano
- Slight zoom on the vanity unit when the earthquake occurs
- Show what he's sitting on. Establishing shot of vanity unit with chair in the shot.
- Depth of field for background - not in complete focus
- Tie the light in the mirror more into the real world (Shine on actor slightly)
- Need newspaper clipping and photo on the mirror
- Adjust position of actor in side on shoot -too low
- Put animation in animatic - adjust positioning correctly for shots with white background in animation just change to multiply so piano is visible.

I'm hoping we can still add the image of the sunset/sunrise. This will add depth to the story and the relationship

For the title, Taylor and I reckon it should just be simple text. We want the viewer to know what the title is straight away. perhaps we could just have simple text of 'AFTERSHOCK' on the screen. The door slams shut and the text shakes (like in an earthquake) Also rather than the title fading away, it could dissolve/ crumble away (Like rubble in an earthquake).

Animating Update!

On Monday, I forgot my usb and left it at home. I couldn't work on two shots that I had started, so instead I've been inbetweening a shot that Taylor has done. I don't have flash/ animate at home, so i could'nt do any work yesterday at home. Although saying this doing the inbetweens didn't take long. i finished the inbetweens today and started working on the flow of the shirt for that shot. I passed it on to Taylor so she can work on the shirt looking flowy.
Today I started on shot 9 which is Elizabeth showing sympathy towards her husband when he lowers his head. I've got the movement and facial expressions down. I may need to add more inbetweens though :)

NOPE

Ok, so I'm listening to a sad song from an anime called Angel Beats (don't watch it you will cry rivers). One of the characters are in a wheel chair and I had  A HORRIBLE BUT GRAND THOUGHT THAT IS TOO LATE.
Instead of Elizabeth sitting at a piano chair..she'd sit in a wheelchair D;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tm7Xf9818FM&index=4&list=RDzIFV8UUs1-c

https://gargarstegosaurus.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/thoughts-on-angel-beats-1-11/

Two ideas

I've been quite caught up this week with the formative game pitch presentations, but I did manage to start animating a shot on Monday.

The shot is of Elizabeth playing piano and turning towards her husband smiling and turning back to the piano.
I tried 2 different actions for this shot and showed my team mates. They liked the more exaggerated version, but our tutor recommended the more subtle movement as it suits the character better. I understood that, but wanted to show the character being more excited or happy to see her husband.

These are the ending shots for both versions that I tried. First one being the more exciting reaction and the second image being more subtle. I like the first one a lot, but I know that the second image suits the character and the feeling we want to show for the scene - being sad.
I will continue with the subtle version as it suits better :)

Animatic Feedback

Joseph updated the animatic this weekend. He put some background rendered shots of our environment to better tie in the scene as well as new footage. It's looking really good!
But there are a few picky things that I've pointed out. Sometimes it takes me a while to notice these things - I really should've looked at the animatic more as he's been working on it. I've been talking to him on FB about it and I'll share my points through this blog post.

Just small things include the audio 'No, not again!' wasn't synced to the video. Also adding the music in would be a good idea, as we now have our music. It wont need to be matched up perfectly, but as I said, we have the music. Might as well chuck it in.
Also playing with the lighting on the actor would be good, as it doesn't match up with the environment.

For the newspaper falling down, I recommended having like 2 shots of the newspaper falling (which can easily be done in photoshop) just to show the viewer that the newspaper is actually falling. Because at the moment it isn't showing that it's falling down or really even moved.

Regarding the shots, there are two shots that aren't quite right to me.
-In shot 2, the actor is running his fingers through his hair and this action doesn't seem in character to me. I mean if I was depressed about losing my partner, I couldn't care less about my hair.

-And shot 4, he's looking at the paper in his hands the whole time, not paying any attention to Elizabeth. Like why would he pay more attention to the paper than his deceased wife? He's pretty lucky to be able to see her when she's not physically there. Priorities man. So I suggested having him 'look at Elizabeth' until he sits down then he can glance at the papers then back to his wife. I mean putting myself in his shoes, I wouldn't pay any attention to work, food... anything! I'd focus on the wife. He was her world, it makes sense.

Reshooting these would be a good idea :)

(BTW Hamish, your doing a great job! I'm just nit picking),

Rough Animating

FINALLY, we've started rough animating. I started shot 6 where Elizabeth is playing the piano and she turns to her husband and turns back to the piano. It's really rough and is only construction. It looks... not nice, BUT our main focus at the moment is to get the movement across then go back to the hair and clothes. I'm not too sure about the second key/image, maybe it's because there's no face as it looks a bit creepy. The tilt might be a bit too much.
There are only 2 keys so far for this shot, but I don't think we really need anymore..

Animation Planning

Taylor and I went over the animation plans. We only have 6 shots of animation which isn't much at all. We don't even have much action, but we will focus on the main movement of Elizabeth first, then go over the hair and clothes after. Some shots don't have much action, so we have made a system where we show the easy, medium and a bit more difficult shots to animate. This way the people in our team can say what shots they're most comfortable animating.
At the moment Taylor is drawing up some frames of Elizabeth's construction to work off as guide being side on and 3/4. This way the rough animators in our group wont go astray where she'd keep moving slightly around the screen. (Hopefully this DOES help!!)

Music

Unfortunately Holly cannot compose a score for us, as she is a very busy. BUT this is ok as we have found an alternative. Only Joseph and Gabby have heard it and they really like it. The others need to listen to it soon.

I like the constant flow of the first minute where there are no up or down parts to it. Although between around 1.25-2.30 there are some nice changes to the flow. These will work well with the 'up' parts of the scene (I hope this makes sense, I'm sure there's a word what I'm trying to explain...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRICEt7XiY